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UN / FREEDOM OF PRESS
STORY: UN / FREEDOM OF PRESS
TRT: 1.42
SOURCE: UNTV
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 2 MAY 2013, UNITED NATIONS HEADQUARTERS IN NEW YORK
FILE – RECENT, UNITED NATIONS HEADQUARTERS IN NEW YORK
1. Exterior shot, United Nations Headquarters in New York
2 MAY 2013, UNITED NATIONS HEADQUARTERS IN NEW YORK
3. Wide shot, conference room
4. Med shot, conference room
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Pamela Falk, President of the UN Correspondents Association:
“This year has been particularly rough on correspondents around the globe. 2012 was the deadliest year ever for reporters. Over 120 journalists were killed. And already this year, in 2013, 26 journalists, our colleagues and friends, have died reporting the news. Imprisonment of journalists worldwide also reached a record high. As we gather here today, over 200 journalists languish in jail, a 25% increase from the year before.”
6. Cutaway, conference room
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Philippe Kridelka, Director of UNESCO Liaison Office in New York:
“9 out of 10 cases of crimes against journalists, media workers, and social media producers go unpunished, the Secretary-General just reminded us of it. This cannot stand. Violence and impunity undermine basic rights and freedoms. They erode public faith in the rule of law. They encourage self censorship. And they poison governance.”
8. Cutaway, conference room
9. SOUNDBITE (English) Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon:
“I condemn all such attacks and repression. I’m especially concerned that so many of the perpetrators escape any form of punishment.”
10. Cutaway, conference room
11. SOUNDBITE (English) Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon:
“All journalists across all media need to be able to do their jobs. When it is safe to speak, the whole world benefits.”
12. Wide shot, conference room
Even though last year was already the deadliest year for reporters, and the year when the highest number of them were imprisioned, this year too is turning out to be “particularly rough,” and the need to punish perpetrators is more important than ever, it was highlighted at a briefing today (2 May) on the eve of World Press Freedom Day.
Speaking after remarks by Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon, and Philippe Kridekla, director of UNESCO in New York, journalist Pamela Falk said that “this year has been particularly rough on correspondents around the globe. 2012 was the deadliest year ever for reporters. Over 120 journalists were killed. And already this year, in 2013, 26 journalists, our colleagues and friends, have died reporting the news.”
Furthermore, Falk, who is also the President of the UN Correspondent Association said that “imprisonment of journalists worldwide also reached a record high. As we gather here today, over 200 journalists languish in jail, a 25% increase from the year before.”
Kriderkla, speaking on behalf of UNESCO, the agency that organizes the annual World Press Freedom day, highlighted the need to punish perpetrators. He remarked that “9 out of 10 cases of crimes against journalists, media workers, and social media producers go unpunished.”
“This cannot stand,” he said. “Violence and impunity undermine basic rights and freedoms. They erode public faith in the rule of law. They encourage self censorship. And they poison governance.”
The Secretary-General, for his part, condemned “all such attacks and repression” and expressed his concern “that so many of the perpetrators escape any form of punishment.”
He stressed that “all journalists across all media need to be able to do their jobs. When it is safe to speak, the whole world benefits.”
3 May was proclaimed World Press Freedom Day by the UN General Assembly in 1993. Every year, it is a date which celebrates the fundamental principles of press freedom; to evaluate press freedom around the world, to defend the media from attacks on their independence and to pay tribute to journalists who have lost their lives in the exercise of their profession.
This year’s theme is “Safe to Speak: Securing Freedom of Expression in All Media.”
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